Energy secretary shares his vision with UMD graduates

U.S. Secretary of Energy and Fall River native Ernest Moniz had two words of advice on Saturday to members of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth graduating class of 2014: clean energy.

Jo C. Goode Herald News Staff Reporter @jgoodeHN

DARTMOUTH — U.S. Secretary of Energy and Fall River native Ernest Moniz had two words of advice on Saturday to members of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth graduating class of 2014: clean energy.

“That is the answer, or at least part of the answer, to three questions,” Moniz said. “How do we preserve energy for future generations, how do we continue to grow the economy, and how can we enhance national security?”

Moniz, who received an honorary degree from the university, was speaking to the graduates from the College of Engineering, College of Nursing, College of Visual and Performing Arts and School of Marine Sciences and Technology at the Tripp Athletic Center.

The evidence of climate change is overwhelming, said Moniz, and effects have already been seen. The slower the world responds, the more costly a solution will be.

A recent study of the affects of climate change across the country shows that in the northeast region there has been a rise in the ocean of more than a foot since 1900, destructive coastal flooding and tidal surges during storms.

“Climate change seems far away, an issue for our children and our grandchildren — well, it’s not true,” said Moniz. “To prevent the worst affects we have to take action and I’m sorry to say my generation have let the next (one) take on a real major challenge.”

Clean energy, Moniz argued, is one of the prime drivers of job creation in the United States, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in energy efficiency, wind and solar power.

“Even more significant, in the next several decades the average global investment in energy will be a trillion dollars a year,” Moniz said.

Energy has been used as a weapon around the world, said Moniz, citing the issue with Russia and the Ukraine.

“Clean energy is again the solution,” Moniz said.

Prior to his appointment as energy secretary, Moniz was a professor of physics and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a faculty member since 1973 and headed the Department of Physics and the Bates Linear Accelerator Center.

A graduate of B.M.C. Durfee High School, Moniz credited his high school teachers for steering him in the field of physics.

Retired Army Col. Susan Annicelli, graduate of UMass Dartmouth Class of 1978 (then Southeastern Massachusetts University) also received an honorary degree for her role as one of the highest-ranking nurses in the military.

Annicelli said her education at the university provided her with sound foundation for practice as well as a spring board for advanced practice and executive leadership roles.

Graduating from the College of Engineering, student commencement speaker Rola Hassoun, the treasurer of Engineers Without Borders, said the world’s water crisis affects millions of lives and that every 21 seconds a child dies of water-related disease.

That knowledge, she said, has spurred her passion for environmental engineering, and calling civil and environmental engineers the unsung heroes of the world’s water crisis.